Posts by Casey Cook10

Brenda Alvarez24 said:Oh, and one more thing.
When you Google search Lipogems, those sites ending in .eu pop up... you know, like lipogems.eu... but whenever I try to click on them, it just says page not found...
And I can't help but wonder why that is...

I was wondering about that too, I guess....
until it finally clicked that the actual site is lipogems.com 🙄

There's actually a ton of research over there, too. Some pretty solid papers by our own authors have even been published there.
Pro tip: don't go looking for every single headline to scream "Lipogems" at you like a neon sign.

I guess they just do all this strictly to make sure there's zero chance of anyone being manipulated, you know, so we don't end up seeing those nasty headlines saying "they took organs from my living relative..."
The American transplant program has actually been quite successful, partly because they maintain such an honest approach, even though the law doesn't even force them to be that transparent.
And honestly, there are always certain individuals or groups who, for religious reasons or whatever else, just don't want to donate organs, and I think it's important that we respect the rights of their loved ones.

I really don't want to steer this conversation off course, but I honestly don't see why my answer was considered controversial.
Maybe it’s because I mentioned that I doubt this will totally revolutionize how we treat MS? I feel a bit bad for Raymond Nguyen5
since it seems pretty obvious that standard treatments aren't doing the trick, but hey, this isn't a doctor's office and whatever opinions are shared here
aren't meant to be binding for anyone. I share them—and I think everyone else here does too—with the best intentions, based on what I know from my own professional background.
But, like some of the other folks in this thread have pointed out, you get all kinds of doctors and patients who just won't be happy until they hear exactly what they want to hear.
Plus, that old saying about how "free advice is worth the least" really seems to hold true here.

I guess the tip of your fingers or whatever part of your hand is in that cast should probably be pointing upwards, maybe

I guess I'm just hanging out here, maybe waiting to see what everyone else thinks about things today. Casey Cook10 says:
So, here’s the giveaway question: I guess you might be wondering what kind of stuff Goran Ivanišević has been signing up for since back in 2009, maybe?

Whatever happens, I guess we all pretty much know how that first act played out.
Maybe we'll just get a little luckier this time around, I guess...

Scott Allen10 said:There aren’t even any exams or special training programs you have to grind through to get started. You’ll kick things off on the day shifts, always working alongside someone else, but then after a few months—or maybe even a couple of years depending on which hospital you end up at—you might start pulling solo shifts...

You don't even need to attend those big medical conferences or spend your nights buried in textbooks.

But honestly, if you ask anyone what the "real" secret is for a modern anesthesia tech (and trust me, the veterans will be the first ones to tell you this), it’s basically just learning how to fast-track your way into complaining. They’ll teach you how to reflexively tell everyone around you how grueling, exhausting, intense, and soul-crushing the job is... making it sound like you're performing open-heart surgery in a hurricane when really, most of it is a total breeze.

🤣😂

And maybe don't forget about the whole complaining routine too, you know, like when those surgeons suddenly decide they need something else on the table at 2:00 AM even though things have never been finished by 5:00 before, or just throwing a little tantrum and making comments about the surgery here and there...

I’d say maybe just take your original post, polish it up a bit, and send it straight to the Department. From there, I guess some bureaucrat will pass it along to the head of the Agency, then to that doctor's boss, and finally she'll be forced to give an official response.
Once you get that, you could probably turn it into the formal statement we need to figure out why she wasn't exactly "looking him in the eye."

Honestly... I don't know what people think they're entitled to lately, or what kind of nonsense politicians have been feeding them regarding what they're "owed" from our healthcare system. 🙄

P.S. It’s actually pretty sad because if the person who started this thread actually filed a complaint with the Department, it would probably trigger that whole chain of events I mentioned.

I think Scott Allen10 might be getting a little mixed up between the common cardiomyopathies—like ischemic or dilated—and hypertrophic ones. What we're actually looking at here is that thickening in the left ventricular outflow tract, and there are definitely surgeries designed to clear that obstruction by trimming away part of the muscle. If you're really careful with the excision, you can usually avoid causing mitral regurgitation, though I guess a tiny bit might happen due to ventricular remodeling, but honestly, a lot of these folks already deal with some regurgitation anyway because of things like prolapse or whatever.

I mean, maybe just reach out to a plastic surgeon... they usually do those procedures under local anesthesia so you can pretty much just head home the same day, I guess.

you should probably go get checked out by a trauma specialist or an orthopedic surgeon
get an X-ray of your lumbar spine, specifically the lower part

I've seen some pretty unexpected stuff when people take those kinds of hits to the head, so I don't mean to freak you out or anything, but it might be a good idea to just go have someone look at it

placidjackal36 said:So it isn't some kind of scam then? Like, the kid is actually real and sick? I guess it's good to know that.

It’s not a scam, honestly... the kid is definitely real and he's sick, I think. 😢

It’s not all doom and gloom, I guess... we actually saw a bit of an uptick in people applying for med school this year. Still, being a doctor feels like a pretty rare career path here in the States.

The whole shortage thing really stems from those years of neglect and terrible staffing decisions back in the nineties. That created this massive gap that politicians today love to brag about fixing—even though their own party veterans were the ones who messed it up in the first place. Back then, so many people just got pushed out because there weren't enough jobs, forcing them to either move abroad or find work outside of medicine entirely.
What’s going to drive people away now is the lack of financial stability. Don't get me wrong, doctors make more than the average American, but for anyone trying to be truly dedicated and conscientious, the pay still feels way too low considering everything you have to endure—the crushing patient load, budget cuts, hospital admin, public scrutiny, even legal threats... All that for a salary that's only slightly above average (and honestly, it's only decent if you're pulling overnight shifts, but that's a whole other conversation). And the old-school "under the table" perks? Those are long gone, at least according to the older generation, though from what I can tell, the younger crowd isn't looking for that kind of stuff anyway.

Personally, I feel like specialists should be making around $70k-$80k without even counting on-call pay (which should probably be handled separately). I also think we need better pay tiers based on specialty—something more substantial than the measly little bonuses they offer now—but I'm worried the medical community itself might push back against that.

Scott Allen10 said:Hey, please don't start making things up! 🙂

It’s just basic math, really:
It’s basically just the base pay plus a little extra for your years on the job—like adding half a percent for every year you've put in—then you tack on whatever position differential applies and any overtime or on-call pay you picked up.
So, the specialist coefficient starts at around 2.04, while the base rate is sitting right around... $1533So, you basically just put in your time through seniority, maybe grab a promotion or a new title along the way, and eventually, it all leads up to those on-call shifts.
If we're talking about picking up eight extra shifts a month, that’s looking like an extra $1,200 to $1,400 in the pocket for a young specialist, which honestly isn't a bad way to pad the savings account.

it still feels pretty low, I guess.
Not even mentioning how those 8 twenty-four-hour shifts mean you're basically never home. And in those high-demand specialties—which is going to be most of them soon—you usually end up staying to work after your shift is over anyway (for free, obviously). I really wonder what happens when federal regulations push for shorter work weeks and who's actually going to follow them.

It just ends up tanking the quality of healthcare too. Doctors really need decent pay for one simple reason—so they don't have to worry about anything except medicine. I bet 99% of them would totally be fine with making maybe $4,000 or $4,500 a month if they only had to pull 2 or 3 shifts a month. Of course, there'll always be people who want way more, but that's a whole different story, I suppose.

It’s kind of a bummer that they scrapped that huge anatomy section, if what I'm hearing is actually true.
There was always such a massive demand for those dissection study guides and materials 🙄

I know, I know, I'm being totally extra... but honestly, searching for something this pointless feels pretty ridiculous 😂

hiddenscout362 said:Look, a surgeon might just rip the whole nail out, which doesn't guarantee anything will actually improve. Just because you were one lucky person in a hundred doesn't mean it works for everyone else. Besides, a podiatrist makes this their actual profession; they specialize exclusively in nails and feet, so you can't even compare them to those amateurish home remedies. And it doesn't even hurt—you soak your foot in warm water first, and then they use specialized tools we don't have at home to pull that ingrown corner out completely painlessly and without bleeding.
The reason your surgeon had to take such a huge chunk is simply because you waited too long.

I mean, honestly, this just sounds pretty ridiculous even on the first read

hiddenscout362 said:Look, a surgeon might just rip the whole nail out, which doesn't guarantee anything will actually improve. Just because you were one lucky person in a hundred doesn't mean it works for everyone else. Besides, a podiatrist makes this their actual profession; they specialize exclusively in nails and feet, so you can't even compare them to those amateurish home remedies. And it doesn't even hurt—you soak your foot in warm water first, and then they use specialized tools we don't have at home to pull that ingrown corner out completely painlessly and without bleeding.
The reason your surgeon had to take such a huge chunk is simply because you waited too long.

Which, I guess, just seems even more wrong after thinking about it twice.
I was wondering if the mods could maybe step in regarding posts like this since they seem kind of dangerous for people's health

Look, I'm sorry, but a clinical autopsy follows a very specific process and set of rules, and they have to open up the head for everyone regardless of what actually caused the death. Whether a pathologist is being sloppy or just dealing with some unexpected complications is really a whole different conversation. An autopsy has its own strict protocol to follow.
And in this particular case, you also have to account for the aortic dissection where the blood leaks into the vessels above the aorta...

Plus, if you're sitting on the ball and you lose that perfect posture even for a second—you just kind of fall over, I guess.😬

Scott Allen10 said:I mean, I guess you're right that things are way more complicated than they look, especially since private practice and cardiac surgery don't really mesh the way most private doctors here in the States usually operate... but honestly, it doesn't even matter much now.

Yeah, I totally agree with that part. In the end, even Magdalena started out purely private, but after just a few months, they pretty much rushed to sign a contract with Medicare because otherwise, they might have had to shut down the whole operation.

Scott Allen10 said:So there's no way those guys are working for maybe $7k or $9k; their monthly take-home has to be a massive five-figure sum negotiated directly with the hospital administration...

Honestly, that's just a theory you've cooked up, and if I had to say, I'm pretty sure it's 120% not true. It might have been the case for Dr. Smith, since they were basically "luring" him to Seattle with that higher salary, but even that didn't stop him from doing his "side gigs," as we can see.
The real issue with our healthcare system is that there’s just no pay stratification based on actual responsibility or the workload. Some people just show up, clock in for eight hours, and pull in the same paycheck as a cardiac surgeon.
Directors actually *could* sign management contracts to pay these specialists more, but they won't, mostly because it would open up a total Pandora's box of demands. At the same time, you see the head of PBS signing contracts for their "stars" to make maybe $40k or $50k a month. I don't know about you, but I personally feel like one cardiac surgeon is worth way more to America than someone like Fodor.

Scott Allen10 said:And at the end of the day, it isn't just about the operator; there's this whole little "army" of doctors and nurses involved which costs a fortune, so that's probably another reason why things are the way they are here...

You seriously think that money is being split up among them??? Don't be ridiculous. From what I've gathered, the workflow has been organized over the years so that everyone works "shifts" or whatever, fitting everything into regular hours, while most of that army doesn't see a single cent extra—there might be an exception or two, maybe someone well-placed who needs to be paid off for their silence, but I doubt everyone is getting a cut.

As for the issues with pediatric cardiac surgery or pediatric interventional cardiology... well, you don't even need to go there, because that's just 😈 😲 (bloody scary)

Good luck getting that refund.
I guess it’s just another case of people being led to believe they can somehow claim these massive, totally unrealistic benefits from Medicare 🙄

darkpuma5 said:My mom is heading in for surgery, and on top of dealing with carotid issues, she’s allergic to most painkillers and anesthetics. Her cholesterol is also super high due to genetics, so she can't even take stuff like Lipitor or similar meds usually recommended for these cases.

Man, whatever surgery someone needs, it’s always a tough spot to be in, but I guess the risks are best left to the specialists—the surgeon and the anesthesiologist are the ones who really know what they're doing. At the end of the day, sometimes these things are even done under local anesthesia.
And honestly, taking something like Lipitor doesn't really have anything to do with her cholesterol levels being managed during the procedure.

darkpuma5 said:We looked into these surgeries, how they actually work, and they told us some pretty scary stuff. They said it’s a massive, high-risk operation, and apparently, if a surgeon is lucky enough to only have a 40% stroke or disability rate during the procedure, that's considered a success. There’s a huge percentage of people who don't make it through, while some go through without issues, but supposedly the overall success rate is way below 50%.

Well, I mean, that isn't really a universal rule or anything. Results mostly depend on how bad the disease is, the quality of the plaque narrowing the artery, and yeah, obviously how good the surgeon is. But those numbers sound, I don't know, maybe a little overly pessimistic...

darkpuma5 said:She’s decided she wants the surgery, so we’re respecting that. We haven't shared all the scary rumors about the procedure with her because we don't want to freak her out more, though I'm not sure if I'm doing the right thing.

I guess she’s really the only one who gets to decide what happens with her own health.
It looks like you guys are still hunting around for a surgeon, which probably just delays everything, raises everyone's stress levels, and pushes off finding a solution. Carotid surgery is actually considered a fairly routine vascular procedure, and you can find it performed at plenty of hospitals across major US cities. Of course, complications can happen, and they can be serious, but still.
If I were you, I might suggest picking a surgeon, going in for a consultation with your mom to ask all those nagging questions, and then just trusting the professionals. Good luck!👍